1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer networks, and more particularly, to an OAM security authentication method and OAM transmitting/receiving devices.
2. The Prior Arts
According to the actual needs of network operators, network management is divided into three categories: operations, administration and maintenance (OAM). OAM involves analyzing, predicting, administering and managing any system or network. The OAM features may include link monitoring, fault detection, and so on.
Moreover, Ethernet OAM technology includes a two-level technology: link-level Ethernet OAM technology and network-level Ethernet OAM technology. With regard to the link-level Ethernet OAM technology, this technology is generally used in an Ethernet physical link among provider edge devices, customer edge devices and customers (also called “last mile”) to monitor the link state between the customer network and the operator network. The typical protocol is an EFM OAM protocol. In other words, customers may monitor the link state between two devices through point-to-point devices using Ethernet features. Regarding the network-level Ethernet OAM technology, the network-level Ethernet OAM technology is generally applied to the network access convergence layer. Such an Ethernet OAM technology covers link monitoring, remote fault detection and so no. The typical protocol of this technology is a connectivity fault detection (CFD) protocol.
Therefore, for the sake of meeting the requirement of avoiding the CFD protocol to be attacked through the Internet, it is necessary to provide a method for authenticating a received CFD packet.